Looking Back - Salem Falls

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

Fiction

2001 Pocket Books

Finished on June 1, 2001

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Jack buries his past, content to become the mysterious stranger who has appeared out of the blue. Addie, desperate for answers, must look into her heart -- and into Jack's lies and shadowy secrets -- for evidence that will condemn or redeem the man she has come to love.

When Jack St. Bride arrives by chance in the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls, he decides to reinvent himself. Tall, blond, and handsome, Jack was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' prep school -- until a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his reputation. Now, working for minimum wage washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, Jack buries his past, content to become the mysterious stranger who has appeared out of the blue.

With ghosts of her own haunting her, Addie Peabody is as cautious around men as Jack St. Bride is around women. But as this unassuming stranger steps smoothly into the diner's daily routine, she finds him fitting just as comfortably inside her heart -- and slowly, a gentle, healing love takes hold between them.

Yet planting roots in Salem Falls may prove fateful for Jack. Amid the white-painted centuries-old churches, a quartet of bored, privileged teenage girls have formed a coven that is crossing the line between amusement and malicious intent. Quick to notice the attractive new employee at Addie's diner, the girls turn Jack's world upside down with a shattering allegation that causes history to repeat itself -- and forces Jack to proclaim his innocence once again. Suddenly nothing in Salem Falls is as it seems: a safe haven turns dangerous, an innocent girl meets evil face-to-face, a dishwasher with a Ph.D. is revealed to be an ex-con. As Jack's hidden past catches up with him, the seams of this tiny town begin to tear, and the emerging truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray. Now Addie, desperate for answers, must look into her heart -- and into Jack's lies and shadowy secrets -- for evidence that will condemn or redeem the man she has come to love.

My Original Thoughts (2001):

Another entertaining book by Picoult, who has fast become one of my favorite authors. This is the third book that I've bead by her and I've yet to be disappointed. 

A high school teacher, wrongfully accused of rape, seeks refuge in Salem Falls after his release from prison. Yet he cannot escape his past. Four teenage "witches," a mother who refuses to let go of her dead child, and a history of rape in the community all come together in this page-turner. Another courtroom drama well-drawn by Picoult will keep me eagerly awaiting her next novel. Thank goodness she has five others I haven't yet read.

My Current Thoughts:

Picoult remains one of my all-time favorite authors. I've read well over a dozen of her books and only one less than stellar.